In anticipation for Joker and the Thief’s launch of their second project, James Milaras and Reuben Nutt from Joker and the Thief take to the streets of the city to shoot their latest Kickstarter Cardistry Trailer.
… and it.is.EPIC!
The pair is popularly known for their incredible deck video reviews in conjunction with Art of Play, focussing purely on the handling of decks of cards. In this exclusive guest post, James share with us their creative process of a shoot and takes us behind the scene of their new trailer for the Joker and the Thief: White Gold Edition Playing Cards.
This video was a special project for both Reuben and myself seeing as it is the first time we had ever filmed outside of our home town.
We believe this video really captured the spirit of Joker and the Thief. We always film in a spontaneous, run and gun manner.
That said, we’re going to take you through the process of how we create our video content.
So, before producing any video we will often scout out our locations a day before we shoot. However, as much as we try, we often end up changing the location at the last second. Weirdly, it always seems to happen… Why? It’s just a thing with us. When planning a deck review or a Cardistry video we often like to select the correct deck and correct music that will suit both the cards and location. This is our foundation for both production and post-production.
From there we simply go out and shoot. Our gear has changed over the years but now our standard equipment consists of Reuben’s Glidecam, Sony A7s, and a couple of 24mm and 35mm T1.5 Cinelenses from Samyang. This is probably the best ‘all rounder’ gear for our work, allowing us to shoot in almost any condition.
Once out, we shoot as much content as possible, often until exhaustion or until we both agree – “Alright, let’s get the hell out of here” or “I’m hungry let’s wrap this up… Burgers?” That’s always fun. Pro tip – never film on an empty stomach.
We’ve also found that for shooting Cardistry, it is super important to be warmed up, which means flourishing for at least an hour before shooting to ensure that your moves are silky smooth for the camera.
So after our well earned lunch, we will either split, or go and edit together. This often includes hours of sitting in Reuben’s room shortlisting shots and then stitching them together in Adobe After Effects, fuelled by many many snacks. Once we both agree that the video is as good as we can make it, we render, export, and upload for your viewing pleasure!
We’re proud to release our latest video, alongside our first project of 2016 – Joker and the Thief: White Gold Edition! Video will go LIVE on Kickstarter on Friday, March 18th at 6:00PM PST.
For more information about Joker and the Thief, check out James Milaras and Reuben Nutt on Instagram or visit their youtube channel for awesome playing cards review.
